


Hyperextension

by HapaxLegomenon



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Burnout - Freeform, Canon Timeline, Gen, Long-Distance Friendship, Zine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-06
Updated: 2018-06-06
Packaged: 2019-05-18 18:21:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14857863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HapaxLegomenon/pseuds/HapaxLegomenon
Summary: [Kenma] havent heard from u in a while.[Kuroo] Sorry. I’m really busy[Kenma] u ok?[Kuroo] I’m fineKuroo finds himself struggling to balance university life, and Kyoto is a long way from Tokyo.





	Hyperextension

[Kenma]  
[15:12]  
hows university?

 

[Kuroo]  
[15:13]  
Busy!! But good. How’s the team?

 

[Kenma]  
[15:13]  
good

 

[Kuroo]  
[15:13]  
Eloquent as always

 

[Kenma]  
[15:14]  
:|

 

Kuroo laughs and runs his hand through his hair. It’s messy, but that’s not new; Kenma’s reticent, and Kuroo’s hair is messy. It’s everything else that’s different.

“Alright,” he mutters. Notebooks and papers arc across his library desk. There’s a lab report to finish for organic chemistry, another for general chemistry, an assignment in calculus and two for statistics. Forty pages of readings for biology alone. He looks at the reams of paper, trying to decide what to do first, and a tightness builds in his chest.

Biology’s one of his favourite subjects, but readings are less urgent than assignments, and easier to defer. Time to catch up. His highlighted secondhand textbook screams at him as he reads. He pauses to look up _semelparity,_ and then he’s checking the glossary every other sentence, trying to cement definitions and distracted by his looming chemistry deadlines. When he realizes it’s taken ten minutes to read one page, and nothing’s sticking because he’s preoccupied by stoichiometry, he decides to give up. He’ll just finish the lab report first. It’s fine.

His laptop wheezes to life, overloaded with open tabs and PDF files, and Kuroo’s heart sinks when he remembers why he stalled on the report. His professor extolls the use of primary sources over textbooks, which is good for Kuroo’s wallet, but bad when every paper is too complex.

“Dammit,” he whispers, staring at the blinking cursor. He taps the keys. He rubs his eyes. Finally, he groans, and sweeps everything into his backpack.

Exercise always clears his head, so he dumps his bag into a locker, pulls on his running shoes, and runs. He runs until the anxious knot in his gut uncoils and he can breathe again.

Of course, the homework is still there, but it’s fine. He has coffee, and who needs sleep, anyway?

 

[Kuroo]  
[7:56]  
Aaaahhh I love morning practice! Been up since 5 but I feel great. The team here is really intense, you’d hate it haha

 

[Kenma]  
[8:05]  
youre crazy

 

[Kuroo]  
[8:05]  
You should be at practice, too

 

[Kenma]  
[8:05]  
youre not my mom

 

[Kenma]  
[8:06]  
lev is annoying

 

[Kuroo]  
[8:06]  
LOL I remember

 

[Kuroo]  
[8:06]  
Be strong Kenma

 

Morning practice is great. Kuroo loves the drum of his heartbeat and the thud of volleyballs hitting the floor and the squeak of sneakers. He loves the intensity and the camaraderie and the feeling that he’s accomplished something for the day. The endorphin rush lasts him through the morning, but afternoon classes are harder. His evening statistics class nearly kills him, but it’s fine. He’s fine. Never mind that classes are long, labs are longer, practice is longer than everything else, and the work is piling up.

He runs again later, and the words echo with the pounding of his feet on the pavement. It’s fine it’s fine it’s fine.

 

[Kuroo]  
[18:12]  
Ugh, dorm food

 

[Kuroo]  
[18:12]  
They haven’t served fish in like two weeks

 

[Kuroo]  
[18:13]  
I had to buy VITAMINS because these meals don’t have proper nutrient profiles

 

[Kuroo]  
[18:13]  
How do people LIVE like this

 

[Kenma]  
[18:18]  
easily

 

[Kuroo]  
[18:18]  
If you’re eating pie for dinner kenma I swear to god

 

There’s an statistics assignment. He’s too busy, it slips his mind, and he chokes on dread when the instructor collects their papers. No late submissions. He has to study but he can’t focus when his heart’s in his mouth, so instead of the library, he goes to the gym, and practices serves until he can’t stand up.

But the work is still there. For the first time, Kuroo’s awake when his morning alarm goes off. He startles, upsetting a mug of cold coffee, and swears in a rough, sleepless voice. It isn’t enough.

Volleyball has always been his escape, something he can feel good about. But today he misses more spikes than he hits and reacts too slowly to block.

“You alright?” a senpai asks, all kind concern.

“I’m fine,” he replies, and is met with skeptical silence.

That night he falls asleep on his chemistry textbook.

 

[Kenma]  
[17:57]  
havent heard from u in a while.

 

[Kuroo]  
[18:58]  
Sorry. I’m really busy

 

[Kenma]  
[18:58]  
u ok?

 

[Kuroo]  
[18:58]  
I’m fine!

 

[Kenma]  
[18:58]  
rly?

 

[Kuroo]  
[19:00]  
Yeah of course!

 

[Kuroo]  
[21:43]  
no

 

Kuroo’s subsisting on endorphins and caffeine, at this point. His biology professor talks about the evolutionary arms race, the Red Queen hypothesis, running just to keep up. He understands it on a visceral level because the slightest hesitation puts him hopelessly, lethally behind.

There’s a knock on his door after midnight, and he surfaces out of an academic trance to answer it.

“What are you doing here?” he blurts out. Over five hundred kilometres separate Kyoto from Tokyo, and Kenma looks awkward and incongruous, standing there in the hallway.

Kenma stares at him, then holds up his phone. Kuroo reads their recent text conversation without comprehension.

“You’re not okay,” Kenma says simply, and Kuroo feels himself cracking. It must show on his face, because Kenma’s lip twists and his posture shifts. It’s subtle, but they’ve known each other forever -- Kuroo knows an invitation when he sees one. He yanks Kenma into a hug, and doesn’t quite cry, but it’s close. He feels Kenma breathing, and tries to centre himself around it.

“I’m so…” His thoughts flicker like an old movie reel, nothing in focus. “So tired.”

Kenma pats his back, but after a minute he starts to wriggle. “You stink,” he complains. “Take a shower. And go to bed.”

Kuroo shakes his head, but Kenma gives him a cat-eyed look and pointedly adds, “‘Keep the oxygen moving and your mind working.’”

Kuroo laughs despite himself. “Sure,” he says.

The warm water is heavenly, and Kuroo almost falls asleep. He’s half-convinced he imagined Kenma on his doorstep; stress and sleep deprivation can cause hallucinations. He read that once. But when he returns, Kenma’s sitting cross-legged on the bed and drowning in one of Kuroo’s hoodies. Kuroo flops down across Kenma’s leg. “God, I missed you."

“Kuro, your hair,” Kenma murmurs without moving away.

“Sorry, geeze.” Kuroo sits up to towel his wet hair, then reaches for his biology textbook. Back to work.

Kenma shoves the book into the blankets.

“Kenma.”

“No.”

“ _Kenma_. I need to study, I --”

Kenma slides the book away. “You need to sleep.”

“But --”

“You can study in the morning.”

“I _can’t_!” Kuroo shouts, startling them both. Kenma looks at him with wide, worried eyes and Kuroo represses the urge to push him off the bed. Or burst into tears. He settles for grabbing a pillow and smushing it over his head.

He feels Kenma get up, hears him moving around as Kuroo stews in self-pity.

“You always tutored me before tests.” Kenma’s voice is quiet. “Mine and yours.”

Kuroo peeks at Kenma from under his pillow, and Kenma picks up the textbook. “In the morning,” he repeats, placing the book on the nightstand before nudging Kuroo until he can snuggle under the covers.

Kuroo stares at the back of Kenma’s head as Kenma shimmies the blanket up to his ears. “Lights?” Kenma insists, muffled, and Kuroo’s spirits lift. This is familiar territory.

“Sure,” he agrees. He gets up to change and turn off the light, and deliberately jostles Kenma when he climbs over him to lie beside the wall. They press back-to-back in the bed, echoing a lifetime spent together, and it feels exactly right.

“Kenma?” Kuroo whispers.

“Mm.”

“Thanks for coming.”

“Mm.”

“Eloquent as always,” he teases, and grins when Kenma sighs.


End file.
